To See Her Smile
by Insignificance
Summary: A collection of Ranma drabbles centered on Ranma and Akane. May include AU ideas that pop into my head too.
1. To See Her Smile

**Drabble #1:** To See Her Smile

**Word count: **307

**Warning: **none

**Note: **set during episode 5 and 6 of the first season, when Ranma finds out that Tofu likes Kasumi. I just recently started to re-watch the entire series, so I think it'd be interesting to try a second set of drabbles.

When Akane admitted to him that Tofu-sensei loves someone else, Ranma was both surprised and angered. He wasn't angry that Tofu-sensei is in love and not with Akane. He was mostly angry at that fact that someone had put that expression on Akane's face.

He had only known the girl for less than a week, yet somehow that sad, painfully defeated expression made something inside him twist. He was surprised, because he honestly didn't like her all that much. Oh she can be nice, of course, the few times where she helped him out. When she tossed that pot of hot water at him, and then went off to face Kuno to buy him time. When she knelt and offered to give him a piggyback ride back home. Those times surprised him to no end, because by all right, she should've left him stranded where he was. But all those times when she insulted him and got angry at him and started hitting him with no real reason beside the fact that he opened his mouth, he resented it.

Yet, as he saw her downcast eyes, somehow that didn't feel right at all either. At the same time, Ranma also realized that there was nothing he could do. Akane was in love with Tofu-sensei, who was in love with another woman. It wasn't like Ranma could beat Tofu-sensei up and make him like Akane back.

It wasn't until they were walking back to the Tendo dojo that Ranma realized that perhaps there was something he could do after all. He didn't enjoy the part where he turned into a girl, and Akane's teasing annoyed him, but the smile she offered, the pure and unburdened laughter, it made his heart jump, just a little.

At that moment, Ranma realized that Tendo Akane can be very cute after all.


	2. Her Warmth

**Drabble #2: **Her Warmth

**Word count:** 236

**Warning:** none

**Note: **Set during Ranma and Ryoga's first fight.

Ranma wasn't really aware at first, when he grabbed her in order to protect her from Ryoga's flying bandanas, simply because he was too busy worrying about her safety. But then, landing on the tree branch and the source of danger gone, he suddenly realized that he was actually holding Akane, hugging her body close to his own. Granted at the time he was a girl himself, but that didn't detract from the feeling of the dark-haired girl's body at all.

She was soft, he thought a little dazedly. Soft and warm and utterly huggable. Her face was buried near his neck, and he could feel the little puffs of warm arm from her breath. Ranma was sure that he didn't like Akane in that way, even if he could admit to himself that her smile was really cute. The amount of time they've known each other could be counted with his two hands. No matter how their fathers meddle, trying to push them together, Ranma knew very well that there's no way he could fall in love with her in a matter of days.

But even though he knew that very well, it didn't make Akane any less soft and warm. It didn't make her any less pretty, with that faint blush on her cheeks.

Only after she walked away with tears in her eyes did Ranma admit to himself that he missed the warmth.


	3. Firsts

**Drabble #3:** Firsts  
**Word count:** 441

**Warning:** none

**Note: **this spans almost the rest of the first season, and into the second season. It includes Ryoga's return and battle, Tofu's mom visiting and trying to get him married, Shampoo's first appearance, pre-Martial Arts Skating Competition battle with Mikado, and lastly the almost-kiss in the dojo, interrupted by the family of course. On a side note, I really hate interface. I can't seem to get any kind of formatting going the way I want it to. --;;

Saotome Ranma experienced a lot of "firsts" after his arrival at the Tendo Dojo. He experienced his first defeat, not at the hands of some highly skilled martial arts master, but beneath the table thrown by the Tendo family's youngest daughter. He made a fool of himself deliberately for the first time, just to cheer a single girl up. He held that girl on the branch of a tree and had blushed, because he realized, for the first time, that a girl can be so warm and soft and utterly not the weak creature his Oyaji talked about with a tone of mild disgust.

He experienced his first surge of jealousy when he caught the sight of his fiancée ready to perform some ridiculous hip dance to marry her crush, the doctor. He exploited his girl-side's looks and charms for the first time that day, rushing into the clinic in a flurry of pink skirt and cute act, just so he could stop the dark-haired girl.

For the first time, he found himself giving in to his impulses when it wasn't about martial arts or food.

He experienced a fear second only to his terror of cats when the youngest Tendo declared that they were no longer engaged. He covered that fear up wonderfully, and it was, for the first time, a wonderful poker face. When their engagement resumed, he had never before felt so relieved.

When that stupid play-boy figure-skater tried to kiss his fiancee, he was angry. When that same stupid play-boy figure-skater kissed _him_, he was furious. For the first time, he put his all into a battle against a person whom he knew to be weaker than him.

When he and his fiancee were sitting in the Dojo, faces only inches apart, he realized that he was about to experience his first real kiss. They were so close. Her eyes were closed, and he could only feel his heart beating furiously. He was excited, confused, fearful and elated all at once. For the first time, he realized he never wanted anything more than to close those few inches of space between the two of them.

When he caught sight of the video camera and the entourage sitting on the side, watching them like some great entertainment show, he felt a disappointment and humiliation so consuming that he, for the first time in his short life, wanted to die.

But sitting so close next to him was a girl who was blushing so prettily, radiating warmth to him even through their clothes. For the first time in his short life, Saotome Ranma realized that he wanted to live.


	4. Rule Breaker

**Drabble #4: **Rule Breaker

**Word count: **326

**Warning: **none

**Note:** I guess this is sort of like an abstract way of viewing their relationship. Akane is blind to herself, unwilling to accept facts so she could protect herself better. In comes Ranma, ready to knock all her defenses away.

Tendo Akane lives a very structured life. Rule number one states that all men are perverted two-timers with no respect for the people around them. Rule number two states that one Tendo Akane will never loose to a man. Rule number three states that Tendo Akane will never accepts help or protection from a man. Rule number four states that Tendo Akane can only be knocked down; that is how one shows their love and affection to her, because she will take no other type of confession. Rule number five states that Tendo Akane is strong, willful, and extremely violent, thus why rule number four must be followed to subdue her into a proper girlfriend.

Rule number six states that she is utterly untouchable.

Then Saotome Ranma comes along into her well-structured life, and she finds that the rules are being breached.

Saotome Ranma is not a perverted two-timer, and he has a healthy respect for those he considers worthy of such respect. Tendo Akane prefers to denounce that claim, although she knows very well that he does nothing with his other fiancées. Saotome Ranma defeats Tendo Akane on a daily basis, despite his unwillingness to exchange real blows with her. Tendo Akane pretends to believe that since he had never taken their spars seriously, it does not count as defeats. Saotome Ranma protects Tendo Akane with a passion unseen in many of his other endeavors. Tendo Akane takes both the protection and the insults equally and calls it even.

Tendo Akane is pleased to note that rules number four, five, and six have yet to be broken; she decides quite firmly that no one, not even Saotome Ranma will take her as their bride. She is unaware that even while she is making that promise, the hard armor around her heart is already being chipped away.

Tendo Akane lives by a set of very structured rules. Unfortunately for her, Saotome Ranma is a compulsive rule-breaker.


End file.
